In an attempt to boost its showing in next year's elections, the Golkar Party has assured its supporters it is serious about implementing an open system to determine its legislative candidates.

Under the system, Golkar legislators will win seats at the House of Representatives based on the most votes won in the 2009 legislative elections.

The party made this public assurance as it ended its three-day national leadership meeting here Sunday, saying the adoption of the open system was intended to heal rifts within the party and between its legislative candidates.

"The party's central board will not intervene, and candidates with the most votes will automatically win seats," said Golkar deputy secretary-general Rully Chairul Azwar.

He added that to avoid unhealthy competition among candidates, Golkar had issued a regulation preventing candidates in the same electoral district from conducting smear campaigns against each other.

Earlier, scores of Golkar politicians questioned the party's policy of allocating House seats to winning candidates based on a numerical system, in which those at the top of the candidate list are automatically given House seats, regardless of the number of votes they win.

This closed system, the critics said, allowed Golkar leaders' loyalists and cronies to be placed at the top of the list, thus creating resentment within the party.

The critics also expressed doubt that top Golkar figures were serious in adopting the open system to avoid intervention in determining legislative candidates, after Vice President and Golkar chairman Jusuf Kalla announced the adoption last month.

The party also decided that ballots in which voters punch only the party's logo rather than the names or photos of candidates, would not be allocated to any individual candidate.

"The unallocated votes will only determine how many seats Golkar will get in a certain electoral district. The regulation remains in force that candidates will be elected based on the most votes they get, no matter how little, as long as Golkar meets the threshold needed to get a seat in the district," Rully said.

To show the party's seriousness in applying the open system, Rully said Golkar would require all candidates to sign a document expressing their willingness to be struck off the candidate list should they fail to win the most votes.

"Because we are adopting the numerical system, they have signed an agreement to resign from the candidate list if those below them on the list win more votes than they do," he said.

Golkar legislator Yuddy Chrisnandi, who resigned as a legislative candidate to protest the party's numerical system, welcomed the announcement.

"It's good for the party. Now the candidates will seriously work to woo voters," he said.

Many observers claim the adoption of the open system is a last-ditch effort by Golkar to stem its increasing unpopularity, reflected in a several recent surveys, as well as defeats in key regional direct elections.

"It will only work if it is consistently and transparently applied," said the Reform Institute's Yudi Latief.

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